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Before he lost nearly 40 pounds, reignited his playing career and put himself in position for a big pay day this coming July, James Johnson found himself shirtless, embarrassed and a bit confused standing in front of the camera lens of an iPad inside the Heat’s training facility last summer. “It was weird to me – really weird to me,” said Johnson, a former first round pick of Chicago back in 2009, who in his first seven years in the league with the Bulls, Raptors, Kings, Grizzlies and Hawks had never been asked by the team’s strength and conditioning coaches to pose shirtless for a photo. “I thought I was going to be the only [player to do it] because I came in something huge… But then I ran through their iPad. It was like a magazine, a list of their accomplishments with other players and I saw it with my own eyes. And from what I saw on that iPad, I wanted to change myself.”

“One of my happiest moments,” Johnson said last Friday in Orlando when he was asked about the set of photos. “And I’m not finished. I’m 238 [pounds] right now and 6.75 [percent body fat]. So, I’m just going to keep going, see how far it takes me. I feel like that the more I lose the more I unleash skills that I didn’t think I was capable of having or doing.” – via Miami Herald

Lol hey I mean he was there for 7 years and they drafted him. But hey idk what he mad for we didn't want him to die and we even opted to not start the process of getting his contract off the books yet (for reasons idk)

Chris Bosh was scheduled to speak with a high-ranking Heat official this week, as the sides try to move past the rancor created by the Heat’s justified unwillingness to allow him to play after a third blood clotting episode and failed physical last September.

The Heat has no intention of using him in a game but has delayed his inevitable release and removing him from its salary cap (a process that was allowed to begin Feb. 9) for two reasons, according to multiple sources:

• Miami doesn’t need the roster spot just yet, and none of the recent available free agents held great appeal to the Heat.

• More importantly, Miami want to keep alive the not-very-likely possibility of being able to trade Bosh (after the season) to a team that might want to trade something Miami wants or a team that believes he could play or (as was the case before last month’s trade deadline) a team that needed to get to the cap floor. There were preliminary trade inquiries earlier this season.

Though insurance will pay a large part of Bosh’s remaining salary, trading him would mean Miami would be on the hook for none of that salary. Also, if another team trades for Bosh, it would eliminate any possibility of him going back on Miami’s cap if he plays 25 games in one season for another team, a possibility that otherwise exists.

Bosh was due $76 million over the final three seasons of his contract, including this one. The Vertical’s Bobby Marks reported that $40.95 million would be paid by insurance and $34.9 million paid by Heat or any team that acquires Bosh.

A team trading for Bosh would not be permitted to apply to remove his salary from its cap, which would make less him appealing to other teams in a trade.

The Heat intends to part ways with Bosh before it needs to clear off his salary from its cap prior to July free agency.

The Heat is confident that a doctor chosen by the league and union will rule that his condition is career-threatening or severe enough to put him at risk if he plays. Such a ruling would remove his remaining salary from Miami’s cap: $25.3 million next season and $26.8 million in 2018-19

Didnt think you would be saying that the beginning of the season ehh? lol

But yeah I noticed it the last two games, especially from watching rich, hes nowhere near as aggressive going to the rim as dion and nobody is putting the pressure on the defense or drawing fouls in the paint. I mean dragic does but thats mainly on fast breaks